Back in 1977, she and business partner Rita Nolan started growing alfalfa sprouts in five-gallon garbage pails and delivering them to Montreal grocers in a clunky Ford Pinto.

Almost 30 years later, Taras still heads the company, Les Aliments AquaFuchsia Foods Inc. Based in Rigaud, it is a major Canadian grower of sprouts, with more than $2 million in annual sales and 15 people on the payroll. AquaFuchsia also distributes other specialty produce.

Nolan, now 57, and Taras, 65, first met at a Montreal consciousness-raising group, which was one of the early manifestations of the women's movement. They later lived in the same collective household.

A native of Albany, N.Y., Nolan had gone to McGill University to study psychology and later worked in various jobs, including one at a feminist art gallery.

Now an accountant in Albany, Nolan recently recalled how the women seized on the idea of growing sprouts, the sprigs formed when beans, seeds and grains start to grow.

"Jessie had been to California where she'd encountered sprouts," Nolan said. "One day we were in the kitchen and she said: 'I'd really like a sprout on this sandwich.' I said: 'What is a sprout?' The light bulbs went on all over the kitchen."

Later, funded by loans from family and friends, the sprout-growing operation moved into a commercial space and the women began selling to local health-food stores and restaurants.

With a few customers under their belt, the women, whose company had been christened Collective Revolution, went after Steinbergs, the major Montreal grocer of the time.

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